Whether managing a product, a region, or even just forming a basic community work group, how to recruit excellent and suitable talent has always been the most headache-inducing problem for managers. Through my practice and observation in product operations, I have found that when the marketing model does not deviate from the product's characteristics, whether the marketing team is excellent often determines the product's development prospects. At a national marketing conference of a well-known enterprise, one of the most discussed issues among distributors and regional managers was: recruitment is difficult, and building an excellent sales team is especially difficult.
In fact, the key to creating an excellent sales team is not whether there is enough talent in the market for us to choose from, but whether the manager has a correct concept of organizing the team. Whether managers advocate experience, education, or image, they all hope that every member of the team is an elite, capable of handling tasks independently. This starting point is understandable; everyone wants their subordinates to be energetic, with sales performance competing with each other, so that results will flourish. However, no matter how excellent the enterprise or entrepreneur, no one has such a sales team. This is not only impossible but also unnecessary. Just like our fingers, we don't need all five to be the same length; even if they were, they would be less convenient and flexible than they are now. This principle may not be difficult to understand; team building also requires complementarity and mutual cooperation.
The question is: how should a team be built to achieve complementarity?
Let's take a basic 9-person sales team as an example to analyze how to use the 12321 principle to build an excellent health product sales team. Simply put, 12321 means: one leader, two elites, three middle-level, two trainees, and one flexible.
"1" – This one is indispensable: a leader
A sales team is first and foremost a management team. Without a qualified team manager, there can be no good performance or development prospects. There is a famous management fable: a lion leading a group of sheep can defeat a sheep leading a group of lions. Everyone understands this, but when selecting this leader, different managers have vastly different requirements, which is why some distributors and enterprises change project leaders 5 or 6 times in two years. In fact, for a sales operations manager, the most basic quality is: understanding the specific operational process of product sales. The most important quality is: execution ability that matches words with actions. Additional qualities for different positions are roughly as follows: the most basic community sales work supervisor should be able to lead by example, working early and late; regional managers with multiple small teams should have certain daily work motivation and training skills; enterprise sales directors and sales managers should also have market coordination and planning capabilities; product franchise sales managers should have the ability to analyze and guide marketing models. Many business owners and distributors like to hire managers with experience in well-known industry enterprises, which is understandable, but they must not deviate from the differences in the company's product marketing model. Because different marketing models determine the basic quality, that is, the understanding of the specific sales operation process.
"2" – Two elites: the guarantee of team performance
Basically, the performance distribution of a sales team follows the Pareto principle, where 20% of the elites generate 80% of the performance. Sales elites often share common characteristics: they are proactive and good at finding methods. This has little to do with experience. Many enterprises emphasize the importance of experience when recruiting elites, which is a big misconception. For the front-line sales team, the leader may itself be a sales elite. For example, the community supervisor and franchise manager mentioned above. These two positions are, to some extent, dual-function roles with management and sales. Just like the village committee director (village head) in China's government function setup, they are leaders of the village and often also the village's wealth creators. Managers often hope that all front-line sales personnel are business experts, but this is unnecessary. If everyone were an elite, first, they would compete with each other and cause more internal friction. Second, it would be difficult to be fair in employee rewards and promotions, causing morale to fluctuate. Excessive internal competition pressure would also force some people to leave, leaving only one or two elites.
"3" – Three middle-level
This middle-level is not the mainstay, but those with average performance and ability. Managers often tend to overlook these employees, thinking they are not very important. In fact, the strength of these employees should not be underestimated. These employees may be experienced, but due to unclear goals or lack of proper motivation, they do not fully utilize their strengths, but occasionally they can solve some thorny problems and show performance rebounds. The weakening of opportunities for middle-level personnel to gain enterprise attention through performance makes them seek attention through other means, such as more logistical work, actively reporting employee thoughts to managers, and actively participating in various cultural activities organized by the enterprise. In terms of immediate benefits, the enterprise may not gain significantly, but for long-term development, their overall contribution is something elites cannot achieve. Because these people receive insufficient attention from the enterprise, their horizontal development strength is enhanced, and any positive or negative emotions often spread rapidly within the sales team and enterprise. Performance breakthroughs rely on elites, but stable development relies on the middle-level.
"2" – Two trainees
That is, there are two employees whose performance and ability are not ideal. They are relatively self-aware and basically do not have ideological conflicts with the enterprise or manager's decisions, but their actions may be a step slower. However, they do not care much about personal gains and losses when executing. In a team, there will always be various trivial tasks that elites cannot do and middle-level are unwilling to do. At this time, the role of the two trainees becomes apparent, such as occasionally moving tables and chairs or shifting materials, which are non-marketing tasks. The two trainees also have the most important role: managers can occasionally use them as negative examples to educate other employees, like killing the chicken to scare the monkey. When disciplining or educating these employees, they generally do not have direct conflicts with the manager, effectively maintaining the manager's authority. If the manager manages well, these employees often have the highest loyalty. Without such employees, daily work and life may lack some fun, and managers may find it difficult to coordinate trivial matters.
"1" – One flexible
The most common manifestation is the last-place elimination system, but the last-place eliminated is the one with the worst performance. Here, "1" is not necessarily the one with the worst performance or ability, but often the one who does not execute the manager's decisions effectively, or who creates negative emotions due to dissatisfaction with the enterprise or manager. This flexible member may be the most fluid in the sales team, sometimes even an elite. Although no manager wants this person to exist, if the team needs to stimulate sales performance to a higher level, or if the team transformation decision is not implemented by employees, this person is key. Managers can use this person for iron-fisted management of the team. Handling this person can be done silently, stimulating other team members to firmly implement decisions.
The 12321 principle is based on a simple 9-person team analysis. In actual team building, the team may be less than 9 or more than 9, but the 12321 principle also applies to these teams. The idea that everyone should be an elite is a misconception for managers; it is neither possible nor necessary to build such a team. As long as the sales team is built according to the 12321 principle, managers will no longer worry about the difficulty of finding talent. Daily management will also go more smoothly. Team cohesion and stability will be strengthened. More importantly, as long as the marketing methods are appropriate, performance improvement should not be a problem.
At the request of many distributor friends, this public platform's third B-end e-commerce inspection class will be held from July 9-12, visiting three platforms: Wanshang Yizhan, Yunbao Shangmeng, and Weijie Chengpei. Distributor friends interested in transformation can join us for on-site inspection:
Organization Form
- Company visit
- Actual market case visit
- On-site explanation
- One-on-one communication
Participating distributor friends only need to pay a registration fee of 200 yuan. Time: July 9-12, 2016. Location: Changsha, Xiamen.
Interested distributor friends can register by long-pressing the QR code below.
When adding friends, please reply "Third Phase Registration".
Past Inspection Enterprise Cases:
Yishang Logistics Model Inspection (Second Phase B-end E-commerce Inspection Group Yishang Logistics)
Caiba Model Inspection
Jinhuobao Model Inspection
Beiquan Model On-site Inspection
Piduoduo Model On-site Inspection
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